Hi ladies! Happy Monday! Below you will find the third installment of Girl Boss Monday and what I’ve been reading about this week!

1- If you live on the East Coast you’ll have probably seen some snow in the past week and a half or so, especially in Washington, D.C., apparently only female senators and staffers showed up to run the Senate this past Tuesday, January 26th…. talk about girl power and resiliency! You can read the full article here

2-If you’ve been following the stock markets you may have noticed that stocks are down across all industries, this article, written by Sallie Krawcheck, a former investment banker, discusses how women should react and how women should invest in an economic downtown, read more here

3-The New York Times just published an article discussing the beer company, Coors Light and their efforts to feature advertising that shows women in a positive and empowering light, (pun intended), props to this company for not portraying women as silly or uneducated in a room full of men drinking, you can read the full article here

4-The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland was held last week and this article gives some highlights for what the women who attended the forum were up to and what their particular contributions were. It’s definitely worth reading and you can learn quite a bit about world politics and world events from the lens of some pretty incredible women who are helping shape international policy. I thought the most interesting take-away from this article was that companies could save 19 BILLION dollars a year if they had parental leave…why? Because finding, hiring, training, and keeping employees is expensive. You can read more here

5-This article gives three simple things that companies can do to invest and support their female employees, more here

What was your favorite article this week? Do you have any suggestions for how I can improve or add to this series every Monday?

Hi Ladies! This is the third week of my “Girl Boss Monday” series, some of these articles are really interesting and I hope you’ll take the time to read at least one or two of them as you go about your day. I realize it’s Tuesday but the week is already flying by and I am running a bit behind, forgive the misnomer in the post’s title!

Also, if you have any suggestions for content or what this series should focus on please don’t hesitate to comment and let me know!

1- This is a great article about the history of fashion combined with new disruptions in technology, I found it extremely interesting that the idea of couture or fashion houses were not around until after the 1900s, prior to that time period if you wanted a dress or a beautiful item of clothing the matriarch of the family would sew it OR if you were wealthy enough you could hire a seamstress. It is often easy to forget that the rapid cycling in and out of stores of different clothing styles is only a very recent phenomenon, so if you’re interested in learning more, you can read more here

2- Sephora is one of my favorite retailers and I am happy to report that they just became even more likable, Sephora is helping female beauty entrepreneurs through the creation of their own tech incubator. Sephora is going to provide funding and mentorship to female founders as part of a larger social justice initiative for the company, the incubator is called “SEPHORA ACCELERATE”… read more here This is perhaps another great reason to purchase copious amounts of makeup from my favorite store 🙂

3- Salesforce spent approximately 3 million dollars to close the gender pay gap and ensure that the salaries of their female employees were on par with their male employees, more here

4-Ellevate Network (a women’s career and empowerment network that provides mentorship, networking, information, events, etc.) published an article the other day and there were some very neat financial tips for women… for example: if you make $85,000 a year, asking for a raise to place your salary as equivalent to a man’s level can net you an additional $1.7 million dollars over the course of your life. Takeaway? Negotiate and ask for that raise ladies! here

5- This last article is from NPR and while it isn’t directly related to female empowerment or women in business, it is very useful financial advice, especially if you’re a recent graduate and curious about your finances. The article is based on a podcast that essentially states that all the personal finance advice you need to know can be found on an index card, read the rationale and what’s written on the index card here

What was your favorite article from this list this week? Do you look more favorably upon Sephora now, given their support of female entrepreneurs?

Happy Monday Ladies! I hope everyone’s week is off to a great start! I’m off to Charlotte, North Carolina for a few days. Let me know your restaurant recommendations and thoughts. I’d love to go to a nice dinner while I am there…. or if you’re a blogger in the area, let me know your schedule and perhaps we can meet up! 🙂

This is the second installment in my weekly “Girl Boss Monday” Series which I’m hoping to indefinitely continue depending on the feedback I receive and whether or not my readers enjoy it!

With that said, here is my weekly round-up of topics and articles related to women, women in finance, technology, savings strategies, etc. and a quick synopsis of all of them:

1- Women in Silicon Valley

This article, from Elle UK discusses the need for more women in technology and also states that “One of the most commonly encountered issues was the 88% of women that had experienced questions that should have been addressed to them (the woman), being asked to their male colleagues in the room,” a disappointing statistic to say the least. Are any of you ladies interning at tech startups or interested in entrepreneurship? Click here to read the article

2- Female Astronauts Headed To Mars

“For the first time NASA’s latest class of astronauts is 50 percent female”…and they’re part of a group of astronauts planning a trip to Mars in the next 15 of so years, talk about inspiring + brave! click here to read the full article

3- WedPics Engagement and Wedding Mobile App

For those of you who are recently engaged or think that might be an upcoming possibility, here is an app you can download for free that makes sharing and viewing wedding pictures super easy, the startup is actually based in Raleigh, North Carolina and is backed by several venture capitalists all over the Southeast, if you’re interested in using the app or learning more about the company, click here to learn more

4- Accenture Makes Commitment to Hire More Women by 2017

This article is more than a week old but relevant since I stumbled across it on LinkedIn, Accenture, which is a global professional services firm that mainly dabbles in finance, consulting and business strategy has announced that they want to have their 40 percent of their workforce represented by women by the year 2017…. huge news for such a large and well-respected company. If you’re interested in learning more about their goals, click here

5- Career Tips to Energize you in the New Year

This is an article from Ellevate, an international women’s career network, (google them to find a chapter in your area if you’re a young professional woman), and this article talks about quality career habits to utilize in the New Year, click here to learn more

Have you ever considered joining a startup? What do you think of gender and hiring inequalities?